Anti-Islam campaigner Anne Marie Waters is now favourite to win the UKIP leadership. The result will be announced at the party’s conference in Torquay on 29th September.

Ms Waters is an associate of EDL founder Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (alias ‘Tommy Robinson’), and one of her campaign organisers is ex-BNP official Jack Buckby. Most of the UKIP establishment, including almost all of its MEPs, are set to quit if she wins the leadership, but ordinary members seem more receptive to her obsessional focus on Islam.

Despite Jack Buckby’s involvement in her campaign, Ms Waters has indicated that she would not allow former BNP or NF members to join UKIP (maintaining the present constitutional ban on such applicants). However a Waters-led UKIP would almost certainly attract a flood of applications from supporters of the EDL and other anti-Islamist groups such as Pegida and Liberty GB.

For almost the entire campaign (since the resignation of Paul Nuttall just after the general election) GLA member Peter Whittle had been favourite to win UKIP’s leadership election, but heavy bets have been placed on Ms Waters in the last few days, making her the new favourite with bookmakers including Ladbrokes, Bet Fred, Coral and Betfair.

Rival candidate Henry Bolton (favoured by much of the UKIP establishment) seems to have overplayed his hand by warning last week that UKIP “could see a swing away from our traditional, secular values and stances; towards something far darker… we could easily slip towards the ideals of National Socialism. The last thing UKIP needs is to become the UK Nazi Party.”

UKIP members seems to have viewed this intervention (quite rightly) as ludicrous hype. Anne Marie Waters is an Islam-obsessed crank, but she isn’t a “Nazi”!